Alumni Association of Lakehead University

Couple Enjoy Wild Fundraising Ride Across Canada

by Michael-Allan Marion
Monday, August 20, 2007
Reprinted with permission from the Sault Star 

There's nothing more gratifying for two students supporting Canada's wilderness areas than actually seeing many of them in a cross-country fundraising bike tour.

Brantford native Valerie Bennett and her Orillia-born significant other, Grant MacDonald, have just returned from the ride of their lives: cycling for nearly three months from Vancouver, BC to St. John's, Nfld. They raised $8,260 for their favourite organization, the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society.

Canada's largest not-for-profit wilderness protection agency is a major national organization advocating the creation of new parks, conservation and wilderness areas and ensuring that present ones are properly maintained.

It has a head office in Ottawa and field offices across the country, from which it oversees 410,000 square kilometres of territory.

This spring, Bennett, 23 and MacDonald, 25, finished degrees together at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay -- she an honours' bachelor of arts in histroy and he a degree in music. They had some time in the summer before going on to post-graduate studies.

Bennett is going to teacher's college in September, while MacDonald is headed to the University of Calgary in Edmonton for a master's degree in music.

They decided that if they were to see their country before careers and life engulfed them, it would have to be this summer.

"I've always been into camping and canoe trips and bike riding, but I had never been outside Ontario and Quebec," Bennett said in the living room of her family home on Magnolia Street.

"Grant and I thought we might as well think big and turn it into a cross-Canada tour, so we could see the whole country. We also decided that we might as well raise money for our favourite charity as well."

They flew out to Vancouver, bought their bikes and portable trailers, then began riding eastward on May 29. They periodically logged reports and photos on their website, www.bikingforcpaws.ca, for anyone wanting to contribute.

Of all the sights they marveled over, both found the ride through the Rockies the most memorable. Making it through Roger's Pass, by Glacier National Park in Montana and Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta, was particularly memorable for their leg muscles.

It took 7 1/2 hours of pumping to get their bikes up the slope, but only 1 1/2 hours to cruise down.

"Even transport trucks stayed behind us, because it was too steep for them to get up enough speed to pass us."

As they crossed the Prairies and into Northwestern Ontario, they usually pitched a tent in a park for the night -- after Bennett had made that daily call, of course, to her ever-concerned mom, Peggy, and her husband, Warren Lowe back on Magnolia Street.

In big cities, they would rent a motel and stay a few days to do some sightseeing. "That way our stuff wouldn't get stolen," said Bennett.

Three times, one of them lost a tire due to construction debris, and they had to backtrack, sometimes for miles, to buy a new one.

Near Deep River in the Ottawa Valley, they were biking through pelting rain, when Bennett nearly ran down a black bear crossing Highway 17.

MacDonald recalled that although it was midday, it was rather dark from the inclement weather, when he spotted the big, black moving bulge.

"I was riding behind, and said, 'Valerie! Bear!'"

"She slammed on the brakes and nearly went over the handle bars. The bear took off into the woods."

Was she scared? "I was sad," said Bennett. "We couldn't get a picture ofhim because he ran off too quickly."

When they reached Ottawa, they crossed to Hull and took La Route Verte, the largest bikeway network in Canada, as far as Quebec City, then crossed to the south shore, traversed the Maritimes and ferried to Newfoundland.

They declared their mission accomplished last Thursday.

A grateful CPAWS awarded each of them a free, five-year membership.

They consider that valuable because, as university students, they couldn't afford to buy one.

"Having travelled through all that and seen what we saw, I'm even more committed to making sure Canada protects as much wilderness space as it can," said Bennett.

"It's all so beautiful."